BENEDETTI FOUNDATION

MINI SESSIONS

CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE – SCHOOL AGE

Click on the month to see what’s on

June

April

May

April

Basslines from Baroque to Blues

Monday 19 and 26 April

6.30 - 7pm UK TIME

Join us for two sessions exploring bass lines through time from the baroque to the blues. Ideal for cello and bass players, but all welcome!

Stewart Wilson

Alice Kent

Advanced Bowing Tips for Upper Strings (violin and viola)

Thursday 22 and 29 April

7 - 7.45 pm UK TIME

Join us for two sessions exploring advanced bowing techniques with Andrea Gajic and Callum Smart. We’ll be exploring techniques including spiccato, sautillé, ricochet, collé, up bow staccato and more!

Callum Smart

Andrea Gajic

Advanced Bowing Tips for Cellists

Thursday 22 and 29 April

7 - 7.45 pm UK TIME

Su-a Lee

Join us for two sessions exploring advanced bowing techniques with cellist Su-a Lee. We’ll be exploring techniques including spiccato, sautillé, ricochet, up bow staccato and more!

Musicians’ Warm Ups with Elena Urioste

Tuesday 27 April

5.30 - 6 pm UK TIME

Join violinist and yogi, Elena Urioste, co-founder of Intermission, as she shares with you some of her favourite and most effective warm ups for young musicians.

Elena Urioste

Exploring Violin Concertos - Mozart G Major & Coleridge-Taylor (Open to Violinists Age 15+)

Wednesday 28 April and 5 May

7.30 - 8.30 pm UK TIME

Join violinists Elena Urioste and Melissa White for an exploration of two great violin concertos – Mozart’s G major Violin Concerto and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Violin Concerto. In these two sessions, we’ll be discussing in depth the relationship between soloist and orchestra, sharing advice, tips and tricks for these particular works and considering interpretation and how we go about learning a concerto from scratch.

Melissa White

Elena Urioste

May

Developing Your Performance Skills with the Stringcredibles (Primary Age 5-11)

Monday 3, 10 and 17 May

PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF TIME: 6.30 - 7pm UK TIME

So…. you’ve practiced the notes, mastered the techniques, understood the meaning of the music…what next? Well, we need to know how to make our performances EXTRAORDINARY, MEMORABLE AND AWESOME. Join the expert Stringcredibles as we explore how to wow your audiences, cultivate great stage presence, introduce your performance, communicate emotion and projecting in a performance space.

Amy Thomas

Helen Edgar

Bryony Morrison

Catherine Arlidge

Developing Your Performance Skills with the Stringcredibles (Secondary Age – 11-18)

Monday 3, 10 and 17 May

6.30 - 7 pm UK TIME

So…. you’ve practiced the notes, mastered the techniques, understood the meaning of the music…what next? Well, we need to know how to make our performances EXTRAORDINARY, MEMORABLE AND AWESOME. Join the expert Stringcredibles as we explore how to wow your audiences, cultivate great stage presence, introduce your performance, communicate emotion and projecting in a performance space.

Amy Thomas

Helen Edgar

Bryony Morrison

Catherine Arlidge

Melissa White

Finding Your Musical Voice: A Positive Social Media Presence (Age 15+)

Monday 3 May

7.30 - 8.30 pm UK TIME

Join organist, conductor and broadcaster Anna Lapwood for a discussion on positive use of social media as musicians. We’ll be discussing how to find and grow your audience and her incredible use of # led campaigns. Having spent some years being encouraged to “play like a man” and with a dedication to her art and mission that belied her years, Anna is now humbled to find that she is an inspiration to many young women and amused that they have adopted her hashtag, #playlikeagirl.

Anna Lapwood

Introduction to Shifting for Cello and Double Bass

Tuesday 4 and 11 May

6.30 - 7 pm UK TIME

Join cellist David Munn and double bassist Alice Kent as we explore the early stages of shifting on the cello and double bass. These sessions are suitable for anyone just starting out with this technique, as well as those who want to readdress their fundamentals. We’ll be sharing lots of exercises and ideas to help you feel comfortable in your shifting.

Alice Kent

David Munn

Introduction to Arranging Music

Tuesday 4 May

7.15 - 8 pm UK TIME

Join pianist, arranger, and composer Tom Poster for an introduction to arranging music. This session is suitable for any young musicians who would like to begin to explore how to

arrange music for ensembles. Some good knowledge of basic music theory would be helpful for this session, but not essential. During the 2020 lockdown, his #UriPosteJukebox series with Elena Urioste - featuring Tom as pianist, arranger, multi-instrumentalist, writer, curator, backing dancer and snowman - brought a staggeringly diverse selection of music to audiences across the world through 88 daily online performances, for which the duo won the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Inspiration Award.

Tom Poster

Beginner Basics for Upper Strings – Violin & Viola – Primary Age

Thursday 6 and 13 May

5-5.30pm UK TIME

Join Rachel Cooper and Ruth Nelson as we explore freedom, fearlessness and experimentation with your instruments. This will be suitable for those who have only just started to play up to a grade 2/3 level. On week 1, we will cover ear training (pitching and hearing the notes), developing rhythm, and some improvising and on week 2 we will cover slurring, basic harmonics and freedom moving around the instrument. 

Rachel Cooper

Ruth Nelson

David Munn

Rhythm Workshop (Open to All – recommended age 7-15)

Saturday 8 May

3 - 4 pm UK TIME

Join percussionists Patrick King and Sidiki Dembélé for a high energy, seriously fun rhythm workshop open to all young musicians (recommended age 7-15). Explore different styles and traditions in this one-hour session.

Sidiki Dembélé

Patrick King

Interpretation and Analysis – Violin (Age 15+)

Monday 10 and 17 May

7.30 - 8.30 pm UK TIME

We are bringing the Interpretation and Analysis sessions back this month. For violinists, Alex Laing will be exploring Haydn’s G major Violin Concerto, 1st movement and parts of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. You don’t need to have played these pieces in order to attend.

Alex Laing

Interpretation and Analysis – Cello (Age 15+)

Monday 10 and 17 May

7.30 - 8.30 pm UK TIME

We are bringing the Interpretation and Analysis sessions back this month. For cellists, Robin Michael will be exploring Beethoven’s Cello and Piano Sonata in A major op.69, 1st movement and Saint Säens Cello Concerto No.1. You don’t need to have played these pieces in order to attend.

Robin Michael

The Entrepreneurial Musician (Age 15+)

Wednesday 12 May

7.30 - 8.30 pm UK TIME

Join Elena Urioste and Melissa White, violinists, yogis and entrepreneurs as we discuss paving your own way in the music world. Alongside their careers as concert violinists, they co-founded Intermission, a program that combines music, movement, and mindfulness, aiming to make music-making a healthier, more holistic practice for students and professionals alike through yoga and meditation. In this session, we’ll be discussing how to find your own path and developing an entrepreneurial spirit within your career.

Elena Urioste

Melissa White

Communication in Performance 

Thursday 13 May

6 - 7.00 pm UK TIME

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Join Jess Gillam as we talk about the art of communication in music making. Jess will share her thoughts on the journey of learning a piece, from the very beginning discovery stages, through to performance. We'll be addressing topics including how do we communicate to our audiences and how do we tell our story. 

Jess Gillam

Theory Basics (Primary Age / Beginners)

Tuesday 18 and 25 May

5 - 5.45 pm UK TIME

Join us as we explore the basics of music theory through games, activities, tasks and challenges. Designed for primary age players of all instruments who are beginner or early intermediate level players. Come and join us for some fun theory discovery.

Scale Exploration for Violin and Viola

Introduction to Conducting

For any young musicians interested in developing some basic conducting skills, come along and join Natalia Luis-Bassa for these sessions. We’ll be teaching you basic beating patters, exploring the role of the right and left hand and looking at how to conduct a simple piece from a score.

June

Developing Double Stops for Advanced Upper Strings

Thursday 3 and 10 June 

7 - 7.30pm UK Time

Join violinists Andrea Gajic, Callum Smart and violist Jenny Lewisohn for an in-depth exploration of how to develop your double stopping. This session is designed for advanced violinists and violists (recommended Grade 7+) and will explore in particular 3rds, 5ths, 6ths, 8ves, fingered 8ves and introducing 10ths. Violins and violas will work separately on week 2.

Improvisation with The Ayoub Sisters

Saturday 5 and 12 June

4 - 4.30 pm UK Time

Join The Ayoub Sisters, Laura and Sarah, as we explore and discover some of the most exciting things that improvisation has to offer. They’ll be taking us on a journey around the world, looking at different styles, and teaching us the basics of improvisation along the way. Laura and Sarah are a multi-instrumental musical duo, who arrange and perform instrumental versions of well-known pop and classical works. They have been a big part of the Foundation’s Virtual Sessions as the arrangers of our multi-instrumental works.

Laura and Sarah Ayoub

Vibrant Vibrato Refresher for Cello and Double Bass

Tuesday 8 June

6 - 7pm UK Time

Cellist Su-a Lee, and double bassist, Claire Whitson will be leading a vibrato refresher session for cellists and basses. We’ll be taking you through the basics, and helping you to give your vibrato a refresh and reset. This is suitable for cellists and basses at all levels, but you should have already developed your basic vibrato with your teacher before registering for this refresher. Cellists and basses will work separately for most of the session.

Claire Whitson

Su-a Lee

Orchestral Excerpts

Tuesday 8 June

7.30 - 8.30pm UK Time

Join Philadelphia Orchestra’s Assistant Principal Double Bassist, Joseph Conyers for an in-depth discussion, exploration and demonstration of how to approach orchestral excerpts. Joseph recently founded a YouTube series called, ‘Play me an Excerpt’, focused on understanding the tools required to succeed at orchestral excerpts. This session will feature some live master class style excerpt coaching and is open to all instruments.

Joseph Conyers

Rhythm and Song Workshop for Young People (Primary Age)

Thursday 10 and 17 June

5.30 - 6pm UK Time

Workshop leader and singer, Lucy Drever, and percussionist, Elsa Bradley, will be combining forces for this high energy, seriously fun workshop bringing together song and rhythm. This session is for primary aged young people, any instruments, or no instrument at all. Over the two sessions, we will be working together to develop our rhythm, pitch and creating a new composition as a group.

Elsa Bradley

Lucy Drever

Violin and Viola Vibrato Refresher

Wednesday 16 June

6.30 - 7.30pm UK Time

Join Alex Laing and Suzie Collier for a vibrato refresher session for violinists and violists. We’ll be taking you back through the basics and helping you to give your vibrato a refresh and reset. This is suitable for violinists and violists of all levels, but you should have already developed your basic vibrato with your teacher before registering for this refresher.

Suzie Collier

Alex Laing